Sharp County record., 1887-11-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Duty OF Exer-
cising a ForgiVlng Spirit,
And Following the Apostolic Injunction TO
"Let Not the sun Go Down upon
Your Wrath"-The Evils oil
MaIevoIent Disposition.

: Gle, the text DelHS: ,
Let mott the sun 60 down your Wrath'-Epne-
SLAMS w., p.
DR. Talmage said: What apillow en-
broidered Of all colors hath the dying DAY !.
The cradle of clouds from which the sun
rises is beautiful enough, but it IS sur
. passed by the many-colored mausoleum
in which at evening it is buried. Sunset
among the mountains! 1t almost takes
one,s breath away to recall the scene. The
long shadows stretching over the plain
make the glory of the departing light, on
the tip-top crags and struck aslant
through the foliage, the more conspicuous.
Saffron and gold, purple and crimson
I commingled. All the castles OF cloud in
confagration. Burning Moscows on
the sky. Hanging gardens
of roses at their deepest
/ blush. Banners of vapor red as if from
carnage, in the battle of the elements.
The hunter among the Adirondacks and
| the Swiss villager among the Alps know
| what is a sunset among the mountains.
/ After a storm at sea the rolling grandeur
| into which the sun goes down to battle at
/ nighfall is something to make weird and
I splendid dreams out Of for lifetime. AL
exander Smith in his poem compares the
/ sunset to ''the barren beach Of hell" but
/ this wonderful spectacle of nature makes
me think of the FURNISHED wall of Heaven.
Paul in prison writing my text remembers
some Of the gorgeous sunsets among the
mountains of Asia Minor, and how he had
/ often seen the towers of Damascus blaze
/ in the close of the Oriental days, and he
flashes out that memory in the text when
/ he says:
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Sublime and all-suggestive duty for
people then and people now. Forgiveness
before sundown. He who never feels the
throb of Indignation is imbecile. He
who can walk among the inju5tices
of the world; inflicted upon him
self and others, without flush OF
/ cheek, or fash Of eye, or agitation of nat
ure, is either in sympathy with wrong or
semi-idotic. When Ananias, the high
priest, ordered the constableS of the court
room to smite Paul in the mouth, Paul
fired up and said:
God shall smite thee, thou whited wall
In the sentence Immediately before
my text, Paul commanded the Ephesians:
Be ye angry and SIN not
1t all depends on what you are mad t
and how long the feeling lasts whether
anger is right or wrong. Life is full of
exasperations. Saul after David Succoth
after Gideon, Korah after Moses, the Pas
quins after Augustus, the Pharisees after
Christ, and every one had his pursuers,
and we are swindled, or belied, or misrep-
resented, or prosecuted, or in some way
wronged, and the danger is that healthful
Indignation shall become baleful spite,
and that our feelings settle down into a
prolonged outpouring of temper displeas.
ing to God and ruinous to ourselves,
and bence the important injunction Of the
text:
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Why that limitation to ones anger?
/ Why that period of flaming vapor set to
punctuate a flaming disposition? What
has the sunset got to do with ones resent
full emotions? Was it haphazard senti.
ment written by Paul without special sig
| nifcance?
! No no; l think of five reasons why we
should not let the sun set before our tenn
per sets.
| First, because twelve hours is long
enough to be cross about any wrong in
ficted upon US. Nothing is so exhausting
to physical health or mental faculty as a
protracted indulgence of ill-humOr. 1t
racks the nervous system. 1t hurts the
digestion. 1t heats the blood in brain and
heart until the whole body is first over
heated and then depressed. Besides that,
it sours the disposition, turns one aside
from his legitimate work. expends ener-
gies that ought to be better employed, and
does US more harm than it does our antag
onist. Paul gives US a good, wide allew-
ance of time for legitimate denunciation,
from six o'clock to six o'clock, but
says: "Stop therew Watch the descend.
ing orb of day, and when it reaches
the horizon take reef in your dispOsi.
tiOn. Unloose your collar and cool Off
Change the subject to something delight
fully pleasant. Unroll your tight fist and
shake hands with some one. Bank up the
fires at the curfew bell. Drive the prowl-
ing dog of enmity back to its kennel. The
hours of this morning will pass by, and
the afternoon will arrive, and the sun will
begin to set, and beg you on its blazing
hearth throw all your feuds, invectives
and satires.
Other things being equal, the man who
preserves good temper will come out
ahead. An cd essayist says the cele
brated John Henderson, of Bristol, Eng,
was at a dining party where political ex-
citement ran high and the debate got
angry, and while Henderco,. was speak
ing, his opponent, unable to answer his
argument, dashed a glass Of wine in his
face, when the speaker deliberately wiped
the liquid from his face and said: "This,
sir, is depression; now, if you please, for
the main argument" While worldly phil.
osoIhy could help but very few to such
equlpoise of spirit, the grace of God could
help any man to such triumph. "Im-
possible" you say; 81 would have either
left the table in anger or have knocked
the man down."
But | have come to believe that nothing
Is impossible if God helps, since what
saw at Beth-Shan faith cure in London,
England, two summers ago. While the
religious service was going on, Rev. DR..
Boardman, glorious man! since gone to
his heavenly rest, was telling the sick
people present that Christ was there as of
old 10 heal all diseases, and that, if they
would only believe, their sickness would
depart. | saw woman near me, with
hand and arm twisted of rheumatism, and
D